DATA Pipeline ATLAS 8 Airspaceschedule

Andi Lamprecht ·2026-05-11· 4 min read· Accepted

Airspace Schedule

Context

Airspace schedule is one of the problem that haven’t been resolved in legacy airmap app.
The schedule defines when the airspace is active so the airspace could have different classification depending on operation time
(e.g. class D for active schedule and class G for not active).
It has impact for drones operations as the same airspace could be under different categories
(like “restricted (authorization required)” and “warning (advisory)”).

The biggest challenge is that the official FAA Schedule data contains only about 300 airspace and for many others you can find note like
“See NOTAMs/Supplement for Class D/E (sfc) eff hrs” (see the March ARB (RIV) example below).
But we have never once seen effective hours for class airspace appear in the NOTAMs and the Chart Supplement is a bunch of documents
with all related airspace information (like communications data, weather data, runway data) and it’s hard to extract the schedule information from these documents.

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Airspace Schedule data

The Airspace Schedule data represents the controlled airspace schedule for airspace volumes in accordance with a location’s control tower hours.
The airspace schedule defines the start time and end time for which the airspace volume is active. If the airspace volume is not active, the airspace is uncontrolled.

Airspace Schedule sources:

• FAA Dataset
• FAA Chart Supplement
• FAA NOTAM

Decision

Since UTM 2.0 was announced, Atlas decided to incorporate the Airspace Schedule and apply it to the airspace data.

Data Sources

FAA Dataset

This data is provided in geojson and includes the schedule in xml format, e.g.:

{
    "type": "Feature",
    "properties": {
        "OBJECTID": 1,
        "FAA_ID": "06FA",
        "Airspace_ID": "AD7C52AF-A645-47A9-9264-4F2FCD76FDE7",
        "APPLIES": "<schedule><Timesheet><timeReference>UTC-5</timeReference><daylightSavingAdjust>YES</daylightSavingAdjust><startDate>01-01</startDate><endDate>31-12</endDate><day>MON</day><startTime>08:00</startTime><endTime>16:00</endTime></Timesheet><Timesheet><timeReference>UTC-5</timeReference><daylightSavingAdjust>YES</daylightSavingAdjust><startDate>01-01</startDate><endDate>31-12</endDate><day>TUE</day><startTime>08:00</startTime><endTime>16:00</endTime></Timesheet><Timesheet><timeReference>UTC-5</timeReference><daylightSavingAdjust>YES</daylightSavingAdjust><startDate>01-01</startDate><endDate>31-12</endDate><day>WED</day><startTime>08:00</startTime><endTime>16:00</endTime></Timesheet><Timesheet><timeReference>UTC-5</timeReference><daylightSavingAdjust>YES</daylightSavingAdjust><startDate>01-01</startDate><endDate>31-12</endDate><day>THU</day><startTime>08:00</startTime><endTime>16:00</endTime></Timesheet><Timesheet><timeReference>UTC-5</timeReference><daylightSavingAdjust>YES</daylightSavingAdjust><startDate>01-01</startDate><endDate>31-12</endDate><day>FRI</day><startTime>08:00</startTime><endTime>16:00</endTime></Timesheet></schedule>",
        "GLOBAL_ID": "F8A9FF56-015B-465D-9DC6-FCB35F004FFA"
    },
    "geometry": null
}

Conclusion: the data is simple to extract.

FAA Chart Supplement

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Definition of Chart Supplement AIRSPACE field:

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Important - Chart Supplement Time Conversion:

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FAA NOTAM

We have never once seen effective hours for class airspace appear in the NOTAMs. We are going to skip the NOTAMs for airspace schedules.

Comparison for referenced airport: March Air Reserve Base (RIV)

• FAA Airspace Schedule Dataset: None
• FAA Chart Supplement: “CLASS C svc ctc APP CON svc Mon–Fri 1500–0700Z‡, Sat–Sun 1500–0200Z‡, clsd hol; other times CLASS D.”
• airnav.com (as a reference): “Attendance: 0700-2300; OPR H24; OPS FM 0700-1500Z++”

Questions / Decisions to be made

• Is the Chart Supplement “AIRSPACE” field exactly what we are looking for?
• Which source should be priority in case of difference?
• How to deal with airspace which has not the schedule data?

Other types of airspace

Special Use Airspace

The FAA dataset contains the required data:

• Field: TIMESOFUSE

  • Field Type: Text
  • Description: Times the Special Use Airspace is used

Important: The SUA data gives time as a plain text like “0700 - 2000, MON - FRI; OCCASIONALLY SAT - SUN, BY NOTAM” so it will be tricky to parse the time.
It also uses for some airspace a non-specific time like “SUNRISE” or “SUNSET”.
And for some it specified Mountain Time Zone.

Question: Should we worry about given time like “SUNRISE” or “SUNSET”? Should we include info like Mountain Time Zone?

Full Time National Security UAS Flight Restrictions

Question: Should be always active?

Part Time National Security UAS Flight Restrictions

The FAA dataset contains the required data:

• Field: ALERTTIME

  • Field Type: DateTime
  • Description: Date and Time that Restriction Enters Alert Status.

• Field: ACTIVETIME

  • Field Type: DateTime
  • Description: Date and Time that Restriction Becomes Active.

• Field: ENDTIME

  • Field Type: DateTime
  • Description: Date and Time that Restriction Ends.

Important: The Date-Time format is [MM/DD/YYYY, HH:MM AM/PM] and is based on EST/EDT.

Question: Should we parse the time for local timezone?

TFR

The FAA data contains the required data:

• Field: dateEffective

  • Field Type: DateTime

• Field: dateExpire

  • Field Type: DateTime

Example:

<codeDailyOper>true</codeDailyOper>
<dateEffective>2023-07-05T14:00:00</dateEffective>
<dateExpire>2023-08-05T04:00:00</dateExpire>
<codeTimeZone>UTC</codeTimeZone>
<codeExpirationTimeZone>UTC</codeExpirationTimeZone>

Important: The xml file contains also ScheduleGroup with additional fields:

<ScheduleGroup>
  <isTimeSeparate>TRUE</isTimeSeparate>
  <dateEffective>2023-07-05T14:00:00</dateEffective>
  <dateExpire>2023-08-05T04:00:00</dateExpire>
  <startTime>2023-07-04T14:00:00</startTime>
  <endTime>2023-07-04T04:00:00</endTime>
</ScheduleGroup>

Question: How the ScheduleGroup differs from the main fields and does it affect the schedule?

Stadiums

TBD

Consequences

Atlas as a data provider will only provide the airspace operational active hours and the classification change for not active airspace.
The downstream applications will need to use these data.

Questions / Decisions to be made

• The FAA dataset gives the hours in local utc zone, while the Chart Supplement gives the data in UTC. We need to unify the data so which format should we use?
• Should Atlas only provides the classification change data or maybe should it applies to airspace and generate two airspace with different classes and different active hours.

Alternatives Considered

1. Apply only the FAA Airspace Schedule Dataset (the last resort)
2. Omit the Airspace Schedule at all (unacceptable)